1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to a semiconductor integrated circuit with a trace function for debugging a user system including a plurality of circuit blocks, a method of operating the semiconductor integrated circuit, and a debugging system.
2. Background Art
For example, in a debugging system which debugs a user system including a processor, such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and a peripheral circuit, it has been proposed to monitor the current consumption of the processor or peripheral circuit or monitor a current flowing into an external terminal of the processor. Related arts are discussed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-222561, No. 2004-348568, and No. 07-44416.
When a plurality of the current consumptions of the currents flowing into the processor, the peripheral circuit, and the like is measured, the data amount indicative of the current values obtained by this measurement increases and the number of bits required for transferring the current values to a trace buffer or the like increases. Thus, the number of external terminals for debugging increases and the product cost increases. In particular, in the semiconductor integrated circuit with a debug function, an increase in the number of external terminals increases the chip size and the system cost.